Walter Ellison (1899–1977) was an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

artist, born in the state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Although the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

had ended in 1865, African Americans still faced many difficulties at the turn of the century, so many of them left the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and moved

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

in search for better opportunities; Ellison was one of them.

Early life

Born in

Eatonton, Georgia Eatonton is a city in and the county seat of Putnam County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 6,307. It was named after William Eaton, an officer and diplomat involved in the First Barbary War. The n ...

, according to census and draft records Ellison was a farm hand. He was 18 years old when the United States decided to enter

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in Europe in 1917 and immigration from Europe to the United States virtually stopped. Because of that, between 1916 and 1970 seven million African Americans left the South for the North, in what became known as the Great Migration, with about half a million of them going to Chicago looking for jobs and new opportunities. Ellison boarded the train to Chicago in the early 1920s in search of an education and a job. He attended classes at the School of the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

(SAIC) and at

Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of Chicago, Hull House, named after the original house's first owner Charles Jerald Hul ...

. He was employed on the Illinois Art Project of the WPA and was a founding member of the

South Side Community Art Center The South Side Community Art Center is a community art center in Chicago that opened in 1940 with support from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in Illinois. Opened in an 1893 mansion in Bronzeville, it became the first bla ...

, along with a number of younger black artists, including Margaret Burroughs, Eldzier Cortor,

Gordon Parks Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and filmmaker, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particularly ...

, Charles Sebree, and Charles White. He also became involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

Art and work

Ellison is best known for intimately-scaled works that reveal the private lives and shared experiences of African Americans who moved to northern cities from the rural South between World War I and II. His most famous painting, ''Train Station'', held in the

, depicts white people on one side of a station platform, identified as being in

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Situated near the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is southeast of Atlanta and near the ...

, who are heading south for luxury holidays, with African Americans carrying their bags, and African Americans on the other side of the platform, carrying their own luggage, boarding a train for the North and a new start. In an untitled painting created in 1937, Ellison depicts a well-made-up African American woman lying back in a beautician's chair with her eyes closed and her temples being massaged. Only the beautician's hands are seen, with her fingernails featuring a "French manicure" – red centers with white moons and tips – a style that has obviously captivated the artist. The woman being massaged seems millions of miles away from whatever might have been troubling her that day.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellison, Walter 1899 births 1977 deaths School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni African-American painters 20th-century African-American artists